1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming method comprising forming electrostatic image on an image forming material, transferring the image onto an image support, followed by contact heat fixation.
2. Related Art
Recently, image forming apparatuses requiring high speed and high quality images employ an image forming method in which electrostatic image formation is performed on an image forming material, and an image obtained by toner development is transferred onto an image support and subjected to contact heat-fixation.
One remaining matter to be solved in this image forming method is the problem that disarrangement of the image is caused in the stage of transferring the image obtained in toner development to an image support.
There have been proposed various methods such as adhesion transfer and contact transfer to overcome such a problem. However, in the adhesion transfer or contact transfer, problems arise with high-speed processing, producing defects that an increased amount of toner to be transferred renders it difficult to raise transfer efficiency. Specifically, color images result in an increased toner amount, compared to convention monochromatic images so that it is difficult to completely transfer a toner image, whereby problems becoming more pronounced.
As an improvement in the method of performing transfer employing an electric field, there was proposed a method in which ultrasonic waves are applied at the time of transfer to enhance transfer efficiency, as disclosed in JP-A No. 2001-100546 (hereinafter, the term JP-A refers to unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication). This method can exclude non-uniformity in toner and is useful as a method enabling efficient transfer of the toner. However, ultrasonic vibration scatters the toner, disadvantageously inducing problems such as scattering of toner or mixing of colors in images.